Militia boss back at East Timor border

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The most senior of the former militia commanders in East Timor has torn up an agreement he made with the Indonesian Army to leave the border area in West Timor and is now building a new house within sight of the country where he is wanted for murder.

Joao Tavares, described by United Nations war crimes prosecutors as the "East Timor supreme militia commander", left the West Timor border town of Atambua in August last year under a deal funded by the European Union.

UN and military sources involved in getting Tavares out of the sensitive border region say the militia commander agreed to live far away in Yogyakarta in Java for two years as part of a plan to reduce the tensions his activities were causing.

But when the Herald visited Atambua this week, Tavares was in the final stages of building a new house to replace the one the Indonesian military bought from him last year with money provided by the EU.

He said he had spent seven months in Yogyakarta and returned to Atambua around March. While admitting he had sold his Atambua house to the military, he denied he had signed an agreement.

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"The agreement was made by the Danrem [regional commander] but when they asked me and my wife to sign it we refused," he said.

Colonel Moeswarno Moesanip, the Danrem, said yesterday from Kupang, several hundred kilometres from Atambua, that Tavares had signed the agreement and he had a copy of it.

"He's just gone back to Atambua to visit his mother-in-law . . . there's no way he can stay in Atambua; his ID card says he lives in Yogya and his pension is paid there."

Tavares said he would stay in Atambua for good and is spending about $A130,000 on one of the biggest houses in the town, which he expects to move into in a month's time.

"I'm an Indonesian citizen, I can go anywhere in the world, to the USA or Australia without reporting to anyone," he said.

Just over the border, Tavares has been indicted twice for separate instances of crimes against humanity including murder, torture and persecution, and could be arrested if he left Indonesia .

UN-funded prosecutors allege that he personally ordered the killing of one of three men in Poega village on April 12, 1999. He is also one of 57 individuals charged with 14 counts of crimes against the civilian population in Bobonaro district between May and September 1999.

Tavares said he had come back to Atambua after unknown people smashed down his door and assaulted his guard at his house in Yogyakarta.

He said that, at 72, he was now an old man and was no longer interested in militia activity.

"I don't want to create problems, it just makes a headache. It's better to chase pretty women and make love than fight wars."

Tavares's return to the border region is certain to be raised with the Indonesian military by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the UN's East Timor peacekeeping forces, who were unaware Tavares has reneged on the deal they helped strike.